A Farewell Message from Alex

A message from Alex, we will miss you so much!!!! ????❤️ “Dear Art Prof Family,
I want to share with you all some exciting news: these next few months I’ll be applying to graduate school, with the goal of becoming a therapist. I will be working to help those struggling with anxiety and depression.

This is a journey I’m thrilled to begin, but it does come with the bittersweet news that I will be saying goodbye to my role at Art Prof, which I’ve been a joyful part of for almost ten years. Clara and I have been talking for a while about this inevitable time, but like any goodbye, it’s seldom easy, no matter how much you plan your departure.

A feeling of pride and joy fills me when I look back on all my time with Art Prof. I remember getting that very first email from Clara back in 2015, about this little idea to set up an online teaching platform. At the time, I had just graduated from RISD and was living in Boston. For me, it was a no-brainer to work with one of my favorite professors again.

The crew of Teaching Artists started to form, and we began the chats, the filming, and the brainstorming to bring Art Prof to life. Our methods, mediums and styles have changed over the years.

That goal from day one to today has been the same: making a free and accessible art education resource. I think we have all experienced how closed and “gate-keepy” the art community can be.

We all wanted to make a resource where if you had a computer, you had an art teacher. No wild tuition cost, no travel costs, just genuine sharing of our knowledge and skills. As our own art careers grew, we found ourselves moving to new places - I moved out to Colorado and focused on my freelance illustration career.

I traveled out to Boston now and then to film tutorials at Clara’s house in Massachusetts. (including one weekend where Clara had me trapped at her house painting the Sleepy Hollow painting for our intro to gouache video.)

We also became truly remote - filming videos for Facebook, Instagram, and slowly searching for the best way to teach our audience. As we grew, that number of students started to climb.

I don’t want to say it exceeded my expectations, since I genuinely believed Art Prof would succeed, but it was a far different thing to dream of it than it was to live it.

To see all of you find us and learn with us from all over the world, of all ages and skills, with different goals and reasons to make art is incredible. In this growth, something happened that I didn’t really think of happening: a community formed.

People interacting and sharing their work, growing together, learning together, outside of a physical classroom setting. I don’t use the word lightly when I say it was beautiful to see you all form this family together.

This community was what first put the idea in my brain to go back to school to be a therapist. I realized so many of us artists have the same questions biting at the back of our brain: am I good enough? Should I keep making art? Why do I make art?

All of us being vulnerable with each other, sharing our doubts and fears about this creative journey, made me realize how much I wanted to continue my artistic journey in a therapeutic way. I want to help artists deal with these questions, and begin to find the answers unique to them.

I want to address the status now of my own artistic journey, since I know many artists feel the same way. I still want to be painting and growing in my craft while I am in school. I want to continue working in children’s book illustration, but I know that this is the “season” of my life to hone another skill.

As my new career as a graduate student and therapist begins, it will be time again to start making art professionally as well. A large part of me relishes in the joy of just making art for me right now, and I advise (as I have on streams so often before!) all of you to cultivate your interests outside of art.
Build your craft, and your life as well. Our studios can be lonely, and the more we grow and learn about our world, the less isolated our work becomes. Let your work be an expression of who you are, and what you enjoy.

Art Prof will always be there to tell you if the composition could be just a little bit better!

Thanks for being a part of what’s made Art Prof such an incredible experience, and I hope we keep building healthy studio habits together ????

All the best, and lots of love,
Alex

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